July 23, 2009

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote — and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.

Crowley, 42, said he’s not a racist, despite how some have cast his actions in the Gates case. “Those who know me know I’m not,” he said....

Though he harbors no “ill feelings toward the professor,” a calm, resolute Crowley said no mea culpa will be forthcoming.

“I just have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “It will never happen.”

And now we know the name of the woman who called the police. I suppose her life will be ruined now, as she'll be portrayed as a racist. Lesson learned: If you think you're witnessing a crime, mind your own business. Somewhere, the new Kitty Genovese walks into the alleyway.

The most important thing is having to live with yourself. How can you bear your image in the mirror once you've failed to act to protect a neighbor, or a complete stranger for that matter, because you might be branded a racist?

Also, umm, Gates doesn't really claim the cop is a racist? Or I missed the statement where he says "Crowley is a racist." Neither did Obama call the cop a racist. He said he "acted stupidly," which I think is pretty close to common sense.

The constant sense of grievance that emanates from certain people-- I would say this disease metastasized among older white women around the time of the south carolina democratic primary-- is barftastic. It's especially galling when it's being used to defend cops for arresting a guy for being rude to them in his own house.

I'm sorry, I'm sure Sgt. Crowley is a great dad and a good guy with his friends and whatever, but as a cop he is probably a dick. Like most cops.

Every black man has a story about the cops. Ask. I'm sure it's all a big coincidence and they're being oversensitive... barf.

Race had nothing to do with this, other than Gates claiming everyone is racist. I side with Gates only because if I do not defend assholes one day they they will come for the rest of us (who can all be assholes on any given day). Everyone has the right to be an asshole in his own home, I think it is in the Constitution, perhaps hiding in the penumbra egg white.

This Gates thing has nothing to do with race and everything to do with some crank mouthing off to a cop. If you cannot mouth off to a cop in your own home, there is no liberty.

As for the neighbor, it was night time. How is she supposed to definitely identify Gates? She was a good citizen and neighbor and should be praised, not criticized.

Obama's true character is getting more and more clear and vivid. Every time he responds it's one-sided and against the very notion of fair and balanced. He now condemns the entire Cambridge police department and isn't willing to entertain the notion that anything his friend did could possibly have been out of line.

I don't take away the same lesson as Althouse does, nor do I agree with Gates or Obama that the cop is racist. My concerns are that cops demand a deference that has nothing to do with obeying the law and being decent citizens. I think Fred4Pres and I share this concern, and he's stating it very well.

Of course, because Sgt. Crowley didn't let a black man die he isn't a racist. That's some real heroic stuff that he did with Gathers and I applaud him for it, but that says little at all about whether he's a racist or not. As much as I'm a Cheney-ist, I wouldn't let him die on the street without trying to save his life. That doesn't mean that I don't hate him and his offspring, just that I can value human life alot more than I value my personal grudges. Somehow, people(The Reverse Racist occupied Right) has some idea that as long as you aren't hitting black people with hoses or lynching that somehow you can't be racist. That's just foolish.

Taking a specific view to this case, I don't know how anyone reasonable doesn't come to the view that he "acted stupidly", setting aside the racism change. Cops are duty bound to serve and protect, and not to arrest people for petty grievances. If there had been a good reason to charge Gates with something, they would have. But his own department couldn't even back him because of his own disgusting behavior.

elHombre said... Montagne wrote: "Gates doesn't really claim the cop is a racist?...Neither did Obama call the cop a racist. He said he "acted stupidly...."

Un momento, clever monsieur. Did you read either the police reports or Obama's statements?

To expand, since it appears you cant follow the links. The arresting officer asserts in the report, that Gates began calling him a racist even before ID had been produced to demonstrate that Gates was not an intruder. Further, within a brief period, the arresting officer's story is confirmed by a Hispanic officer who apparently was there through 3/4 of the period of interaction. The Hispanic states that Gates was abusive and yelling about the Racist Officer throughout the interaction.

So until Obama and Gates can produce witnesses (and there were a dozen available, some black) to contradict the 2 signed statements, I think both should STFU

Clearly this is B. Hussein Obama's teri shiavo moment. Down come the house of cards for Carter II If we're lucky next election will bring in Sarah Reagan Palin and she can be awesome like reagan was during Lebanon, not like that fink Carter in Iran!

Ohh, the poor downtrodden plight of the white man in todays amerikkka!

I have my own problems with cops and have witnessed jerk like behavior from city and state cops a like.

I have also witnessed patience, and reasonableness.

That said, if the eye witnesses are accurate, it looks like it was gates who jumped to conclusions.

Imagine how this would have turned out if he said, "someone thinks there is a break in? Oh, this is a mistake, let me explain..." show his ID, I live here and perhaps even engage the neighbor, thank her and everyone is assured everything was fine. Thank goodness.

But no. Gates went off and I agree, like Al Sharpton at a protest, Gates got what he wanted which was a spectacle seemingly proving his point.

Both are at fault, but if gates would have reacted calmly, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Right?

And is the front porch of your home "in public"? What about in your living room if the window is open? Can you be arrested for playing "Fuck the Police" by NWA in your bedroom? On headphones if the sound is bleeding out? Or maybe if your facial expression hints at your suspicion that the officer is a racist? What about your tone of voice? Is being smarmy to a cop a reason for arrest?

My concerns are that cops demand a deference that has nothing to do with obeying the law and being decent citizens.

Exactly. I clerk for a federal judge, and have seen well over 50 civil rights cases involving the police. As a general rule, police officers hate when their authority is questioned. They overreact. If you read the narrative in the officer's report (and these reports tend to be very self-serving), you'll notice that, about halfway through, he says that he "was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence" but "was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited towards me."

At this point, the officer should have left. Even though it makes him look like a dick, Gates had every right to treat the officer with disdain. The officer's obligation is to suck it up and move on.

The left can make all the excuses it wants about Obama commenting on this purely local matter, which may or may not have involved racism (it didn't but it doesn't matter), but the FACT is his commenting on it made him look small and petty at a time when his looking presidential is about the only thing that is saving his whole presidency from collapsing around him now.

Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university's race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.

LOL Yeah, heaven forbid the police check out a guy using tools to remove a lock. Non-racists would psychically KNOW that a guy doing that owned the biked and worked at Harvard.

What is the acting stupidly or racism? Where is it exactly. Gates was either publicly disorderly or not. They may decide to not charge, but that doesn't mean the officer was wrong to arrest.

Do we really hold that you can berate cops in your front yard after they come to help you and resolve the situation professionally? That's what we want to be totally accepted? People standing in their front yards mooning cops and calling them names. This would be cool in your neighborhood? This is what you are defending all righteous?

I doubt you would if you knew a cop or was one. Or any other person doing a public service job that requires you to interact in these situations and get it right.

Are you sure about the side your taking here, Knowing the cop WAS doing his job correctly?

Say you were Gates and someone had tried to break into your home before and had broken your door in the process. Because your door is screwed up, you have to sort of fight your way into it when you get home.

The police show up right away to make sure that you are you and your house is not being broken into.

Do you...(a) berate them because you assume they are racists who saw a black man inside a house and decided to harass him; OR(b) thank them over and over for being so quick to respond (in hopes that they will continue to be so responsive in the future in case someone tries to rob you again) and show them ID?

I notice that, according to the Boston Globe, Obama had a running beef with the Cambridge police for decades, during which he dodged payment on 17 traffic tickets issued by the department. He only ponied up 2 weeks before he officially announced his run for president.

Seem to me the one real doofus is the president--he was trying to make a case for health care reform, and that message has been totally swamped by an incident in which both the police and professor gates have reached agreement. The best answer would have been to say "I don't know the facts of the case and it would be inappropriate for me to comment...we need to talk about reforming the health care system etc" But thats just my .02.

And it looks like thost nasty old republicans in the senate led by Harry Reid wont let health care reform up for a vote before recess. Damn republicans--think they own the place.

I used to deal with those types of cases all the time. We referred to them as "contempt of cop" cases. The State almost always no filed them the next day. There may or may not be racism on the part of the cop (Gates seems to be a race baiting jerk) but there is an issue with police abusing their powers as mentioned earlier.

I would like to see a discussion of police tactics (mostly focused in the poor black, white and hispanic communities) such as swat deployments, no knock raids, pretextual stops, etc, etc.

Maybe this case can open the eyes of the upper and middle classes to what is happening in their towns.

"Uhhh, Obama didn't bring it up. He was asked a question and gave an honest answer. An impolitic answer, even. Kind of refreshing."

The proper answer. The smart answer. The presidential answer would have been to say something along the lines of "I don't really have all the facts surrounding that purely local matter. No one does at this point so I suggest we all wait and see what the truth is.

As to his answer being refreshing. It surely was. Refreshingly candid. But sometimes refreshingly candid is not a good thing. As is the case here.

Yeah, poor cops. It's crazy how they volunteer to do a dangerous job out of the goodness of their hearts. They don't get paid for it or get to power trip or anything. Especially in a warzone like Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anyone who disrespects cops should be set on fire while crackheads stab them with crack viles.

Poor Ann - I think she is going to start getting Obama derangement syndrome soon, all because she resents him for sucking her in.

That'll teach you to vote on 'intellectual' grounds! They are all incompetent for the job, no more Lincoln dreaming, you can only pick the one you think is ideologically and tempermentally most likely to react the way you would prefer.

Wonder how soon some overzealous Obama-supporting gov't employee in Massachusetts looks into the private records of Officer Crowley and leaks them to the media as Ohio state officials did with Joe the Plumber?

That makes no difference. The point is that the incident wasn't racist regardless of what Dr. Gates thought. And if that still affects the way he views the police so strongly, being that there are no longer any such signs and being that the good professor is in Cambridge not the Deep South, perhaps he should re-evaluate his view of the police.

CHAPTER 272. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY, DECENCY AND GOOD ORDER

Chapter 272: Section 53. Penalty for certain offenses

Section 53. Common night walkers, common street walkers, both male and female, common railers and brawlers, persons who with offensive and disorderly acts or language accost or annoy persons of the opposite sex, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons in speech or behavior, idle and disorderly persons, disturbers of the peace, keepers of noisy and disorderly houses, and persons guilty of indecent exposure may be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Reading the police report, it seems clear that Gates acted like an utter moron here -- what kind of idiot baits the police like that? -- but he shouldn't have been arrested. Officer ought to have sucked it up and let the Professor make an ass of himself. Everyone's at fault. Pox on all houses, etc. etc.

Even if that is true, what are you arguing? That this gives Gates a blank check to abuse any police officer?

And is the front porch of your home "in public"?

Of course this depends on your local statutes, but in my own case, the statute does not even specifically require that the disorderly conduct take place "in public," only that it "tends to cause or provoke a disturbance." So, if the front porch is sufficiently in view of others it would seem to fall under the statute.

What about in your living room if the window is open? Can you be arrested for playing "Fuck the Police" by NWA in your bedroom? On headphones if the sound is bleeding out? Or maybe if your facial expression hints at your suspicion that the officer is a racist? What about your tone of voice? Is being smarmy to a cop a reason for arrest?

The answer for all of those is going to be whether your behavior tends to cause or provoke a disturbance.

Maybe you think, as I do, that disorderly conduct laws are unreasonably vague and over broad. But certainly arguing the point with a police officer is not the correct way to address a statutory deficiency.

Sofa King said..."I would be willing to concede that the cop acted stupidly if Gates' defenders would be willing to concede the same of Gates. Instead they seem to be holding him up as some kind of hero."

To arrest a college professor or anyone for that matter, black, white or any color...for this...was an overreaction and just plain..."stupid?"

No, I think it's just over-cautious. Nine times out of ten, the crazy man ranting at you is not a danger to anyone, even himself, but just in case he turns out to be, well, might as well take him down to the station to cool his head.

Are you saying you've heard the expression that "Cops just can't catch a break with the white man?"

Bullshit."

You're getting this all twisted-up, Jeremy.

The saying, "Blacks just can't catch a break with the cops" is well-known and something blacks have said and still say today. Whether it is a true statement or not is besides the point. The saying is a fact and not a make-believe creation of some white racist.

So if someone wants to play around with those words and turn it back on the group that created it, how is that any more bigoted than blacks saying that cops are always out to get them, which is what the original statement implies?

Yes, I just looked it up. Looks like he said so too. But it still doesn't explain why UWS would accuse Althouse of racism for bringing up Kitty's murder since Althouse clearly meant that ignoring apparent crime can end in tragedy.

That said, the fact that Gates seemed to have regained his sanity by the end of the encounter (he apparently is sufficiently composed to approve the choice of person to secure his residence while he is out) suggests that his head may have been cooled enough by the time they actually put the cuffs on him.

IC 35-45-1-3Disorderly conduct Sec. 3. (a) A person who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally: (1) engages in fighting or in tumultuous conduct; (2) makes unreasonable noise and continues to do so after being asked to stop; or

"How many videos on the TV show cops have we seen middle age white folk cussing out cops for giving them speeding tickets and then driving away?"

I've seen one. You know the one where that moron in the car is screaming at the cop who gave him a ticket. Then he tears it up and throws it on the ground and the cop calmly tells him to pick it up or he will arrest him for littering. The guy does so he doesn't get arrested and the cops laughs his butt off as the moron drives away angry.

This is bullshit. Your points are all well-taken, and this was a giant "Hey, look over there," during a so-called presser about the pending so-called health-care bill, and Gates probably is a reactionary dick, but also there actually is widespread racial profiling by police. Doctor Fred told me so. Widely known and respected oncologist, had another doctor friend, also an oncologist, black, both drove new Mercedes. Fred told me his friend told him that he (the black oncologist) stopped driving his Benz because he gets pulled over every time he drives it! I go, "No." Fred goes, "Yes." I go,"No Way." Fred goes, "YES WAY !!!!111!!!!111!1!"

I peep weakly, "Fine."

This has vexed me ever since Fred pressed the point, and for the life of me I do not understand what is so profile-able about a black guy driving a new Benz, but just thinking about a person, a doctor especially, being pulled over because of race + car make/model flat pisses me off.

Montaigne - Every black man has a story about the cops. Ask. I'm sure it's all a big coincidence and they're being oversensitive... barf.

With one in 5 black men between the ages of 18 and 40 having been convicted or plead guilty to some crime or misdemeanor, I'm not surprised they have stories about cops. Unsympathetic ones. They are all oppressed innocents, persecuted by cops.Meanwhile, most whites, hispanics, asians and blacks who live or have lived in an urban area...if you ask them, have personally or by a close friend or relative - been touched by or been scared by - black thugs.

===================Fred4Pres - This Gates thing has nothing to do with race and everything to do with some crank mouthing off to a cop. If you cannot mouth off to a cop in your own home, there is no liberty.

Fred, you still are clueless on this, and keep asserting what you imagine is a "right". Same thing that gets other people arrested.

1. Cops can enter your home without warrant, if they have reason to establish probable cause that a crime is in progress or other public safety issue is involved. (such as the right of firefighters to troop right into your place if they are fighting a fire in an adjacent buiding and are checking exposure.spread of fire - whether you like it or not)

2. Your right to "mouth off" to people acting under the legal color of the law and authority is limited. You might get away with some, depending on the situation - but even in your house, if you refuse to cease and desist, refuse to obey commands - they will arrest.

Unfortunately for you and the usual crowd of fools that act belligerantly in a domestic violence situation "where the police were clearly wrong and I told them to fuck off and get outta my house!" , crime scene, fire scene, crowd control situations?? Your incorrect assumptions of "liberty!!" makes you just another person who might one day make a lawyer a little richer.

Do yourself a favor and educate yourself. Even the ACLU puts out a card of "word to the wise" guidances of what you can or can't do with an official acting under color of law...even in your own house..

The problem is that, ironically, the professor is assuming that the white policeman's actions were racially motivated. And a lot of people, including the President, don't seem to realize that that attitude perpetuate racism more than actual racist acts do.

I happened to be in Santa Barbara when this happened. Would anyone consider this an "overreaction?"

Published: December 15, 1983

Three members of the Harlem Globetrotters were apprehended Tuesday night by the police, who mistakenly thought they had robbed a jewelry store.

Jimmy Blacklock, Ovie Dotson and Louis Dunbar were in Santa Barbara, a coastal city north of Los Angeles, for a game Tuesday night and were visiting a downtown jewelry shop about a half-hour after another jewelry store in nearby Montecito had been by three black men.

The players were waiting for a taxi when officers in a patrol car spotted them and thought they fit the descriptions of the Montecito robbers, who the police said were wearing athletic warmup suits.

When the players got into their cab, the police followed, pulled the cab over and ordered the three players out and onto the ground at gunpoint. They were then handcuffed and put in the patrol car.

I said he should have walked away from this specific situation...and of course, you know that, but just can't bring yourself to admit it.

Gates overreacted.

The cop overreacted."

Having some passing experience in law enforcement - 25 years - I don't know that and I don't think they overreacted.

The subject - in this case Gates - had total control here. After he showed his ID he should have shut the hell up and helped the officers do their job so they could leave quickly. He did not. He yelled at and insulted the officers and made their jobs more difficult when it was totally unnecessary. If he felt that they acted wrongly out of racism he could have raised that issue afterward, with the Chief of Police or others. That is the proper way to do handle disputes with officers. The smart way.

That is what I have taught my sons to do if they are ever involved with the police and it is what I advise any person.

Oh and as to this whole badge number and name stuff. The officer's name is always on the police report as is the infamous badge number. Yelling at the cop for it after being given the information twice I believe is moronic.

UWS "Gates was a still a young man when the signs outside of cities in the south read, "Nigger don't let the sun set on you here."

That couldn't possibly effect the way he views the police could it?"

I have lived for over sixty years in the south, have traveled it from end to end. I have taught in a historically black college. I have never seen such a sign in the south, or anywhere else for that matter, and I call bullshit on your comment. This is the kind of nonsense on stilts that has led to otherwise reasonable people believing that calling the cops on a person of color who is breaking into a house as "profiling." I don't know where you are from but I do know that you find it necessary to make shit up to support your "point."

The subject - in this case Gates - had total control here. After he showed his ID he should have shut the hell up and helped the officers do their job so they could leave quickly. He did not. He yelled at and insulted the officers and made their jobs more difficult when it was totally unnecessary. If he felt that they acted wrongly out of racism he could have raised that issue afterward, with the Chief of Police or others. That is the proper way to do handle disputes with officers. The smart way.

Yes, we should all have training to learn how to diffuse a situation with a police officer. I should also learn how to instruct a chef on how to properly cook my steak. Or make sure that I instruct my accountant that I want him to do my taxes properly and not get audited. Up is down.

I would bet that, for most experienced cops, when someone immediently cries racism for their obviously legitimate actions, that is a huge red flag that they are doing something they shouldn't be. Even though that wasn't the case here, I'll bet it is a lot more often than it's not.

True story: when I was in my teens, a group of us went to the mall, but got split up. We happened to meet back at a small jewelery store (Claire's). One girl, who was (mixed race but appeared) black, began loudly telling the rest about her experience in the other jewelery store, where, she claimed, she was followed and eyeballed the entire time, presumably due to her race.

When we left the store, I noticed she was wearing earrings that I didn't remember from earlier. She had walked out with half the store, knowing that the Claire's employees wouldn't dare watch her, based on her accusations of racism of the other store. She was quite proud of herself about it, too.

Yes, we should all have training to learn how to diffuse a situation with a police officer. I should also learn how to instruct a chef on how to properly cook my steak. Or make sure that I instruct my accountant that I want him to do my taxes properly and not get audited. Up is down.

Actually, it's fairly simple - just don't be a complete asshole and start screaming at a cop who's trying to investigate a break-in.

etween 1890 and 1968, thousands of towns across the United States drove out their black populations or took steps to forbid African Americans from living in them. Thus were created “sundown towns,” so named because many marked their city limits with signs typically reading, “Nigger, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On You In Alix”—an Arkansas town in Franklin County that had such a sign around 1970. By 1970, when sundown towns were at their peak, more than half of all incorporated communities outside the traditional South probably excluded African Americans, including probably more than a hundred towns in the northwestern two-thirds of Arkansas. White residents of the traditional South rarely engaged in the practice; they kept African Americans down but hardly drove them out. Accordingly, no sundown town has yet been confirmed in the southeastern third of Arkansas that lies east of a line from Brightstar (Miller County) to Blytheville (Mississippi County), and only three likely suspects have emerged.

Sundown towns in Arkansas range from hamlets like Alix to larger towns like Paragould (Greene County) and Springdale (Washington County). Entire counties went sundown, such as Boone, Clay, and Polk. Some multi-county areas also kept out African Americans. In Mississippi County, for example, according to historian Michael Dougan, a red line that was originally a road surveyor’s mark defined a “dead line” beyond which African Americans might not trespass to the west. That line apparently continued northeast into the Missouri Bootheel and southwest to Lepanto (Poinsett County), delineating more than 2,000 square miles.

"Yes, we should all have training to learn how to diffuse a situation with a police officer. I should also learn how to instruct a chef on how to properly cook my steak. Or make sure that I instruct my accountant that I want him to do my taxes properly and not get audited. Up is down."

Hey, if you consider being civil to people, especially people who have some leeway in how they treat you at a particular moment in your life, some kind of "specialized training" then fine, but to me it's just common sense.

Do what you want, man, I could care less, but don't bitch about how you were treated badly when you are acting like an ass yourself.

No you see 1960s matter because Gates FELT oppressed "in the moment" and felt justified calling the cop all kinds of names and insulting his mother. One thing you learn about cops, don't EVER insult their mom.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, where he is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.

UWS guy said... Gates was a still a young man when the signs outside of cities in the south read, "Nigger don't let the sun set on you here.".

We are familiar with the tall tales of various race baiters. "Every day, there was a new innocent black man hanging from the trees. The air was full of the smell of barbecued Negro". Jails were full of black men, almost 100% absolutely innocent, victims of only white racism..."

This is another one. No such signs ever existed in the South.

Though some property owners in the riot years may have had personal warning signs that tresspassers and 'nigger looters' would be shot. But not any official signs..=================Interesting, if true, that The One had stiffed Cambridge police on 17 traffic tickets for nearly 20 years and finally paid up when he announced he was running. (His handlers and TelePrompter script writer looking out for him...cleaning up those little things...traffic tickets, reaching his old white girlfriends to beg they do no interviews)

If Americans can't dispute or even scream at a police officer when we feel we're being wronged, without being arrested or attacked in some way, we would be living in a police state.

Well, sorry pal, but if that is your definition of a police state then we are living in one now. You may or may not get cuffed if you try what Gates did, depending on how the cop feels that day, but you'll definitely run that risk.

I wonder how many of the commenters here who loudly proclaim our right to verbally abuse police officers would ever try such stunt themselves.

Jeremy...Sorry to be the one to tell you, but we have always lived in a police state. The keeping of the peace is the police forces job. They have Detectives to investigate (and be seen in TV series). They have judges and juries and DAs and lawyers to hammer out a just outcome that includes protections you take for granted. But until the Detectives and Courts et al. get called into action we are all under a police state keeping the peace for us and for everyone else. So do not misbehave when the police officer warns you to behave. Pretty please, Jeremy.

My sympathies would have been with the officer had he decided to continue to leave instead of escalating the situation with an unnecessary arrest.

The officer did not have to start going on about "you're now becoming disorderly" and start pulling out his handcuffs. He could have just left.

I don't think the cop is a racist. I think he's an asshole who ran into another asshole. But the cop should have been the bigger man and not turned it into some silly "disorderly conduct" B.S.

It's not just black people who get harassed by police. As a white person who has friends in the ghetto areas of Cleveland, I have been beliggerently harassed by police, as have been black people I am hanging out with. There have been several occassions where I may have found myself in some silly arest like Gates if I had not bitten my tongue and put up with shit from a cop. So, my conclusion is, these are two assholes and, as some spokesman for Obama said today, cooler heads should've prevailed on both sides.

But especially on the side of the cop.

People are tired of the police state mentality of so many of our police officers. If the police wants respect, they ought to stop acting like they're gonna arrest you for sneezing.

What the hell does reciting past episodes of police brutality or racism have to do with these people here on this day? Unless they were involved in those incidents it's irrelevant. We all know it happens, and we all know that mostly it does not. All that matters is what happened here. Anything else is profiling on one side or the other.

Only Gates overreacted. He had no justification for going off on this particular officer. Once he did and refused to stop it after being asked twice, it was reasonable for the cop to arrest. He didn't have to, and maybe it would have been better if he didn't, but it was not wrong or out of line. Gates was the only overreaction and the only one acting out of racial prejudice.

Bill said..."What is it that Gates did that warranted his being placed under arrest? Take the report at face value, assume it is all true, and it went down just that way, why was he busted?"

Because Crowley lost control of the situation.

Had he merely walked away, got into his car and left...that would have been that.

Gates could call, complain vent, bitch or do whatever, but everything would have died down in a matter of hours.

To cuff, arrest and then book Gates was a waste of time, and it's hard to believe there wasn't something else more important the officer could have been dealing with.

It was a call in about something that wasn't really happening and the instant the officer realized Gates was who he said he was and that it was indeed his house, should have been dealt with as just that: nothing.

He also said that Medicare was about to go bust because the previous administration did the medicare prescription benefit-so now he has to do this greater coverage to help pay for that over-expenditure....

Okay then.

Also he said something like people have to stop spending on unhealthy stuff but that he was going to partially fill old people's donuts...

Police should simply stop responding to calls at properties owned by black people. That will solve the problem.

Here are the facts:

1. Two people were BREAKING INTO A HOUSE2. An eyewitness reported this3. An officer responded, found a house that was BROKEN INTO and proceeded to treat the people he encountered carefully, in case they may actually be a criminal.